President Obama equated partisan gridlock with a failure of patriotism on Tuesday as he thanked veterans for their service and alluded to the battle over the economy that lies ahead for Washington this fall. Offering the veterans' service as an example to the nation's elected leaders, Obama said Congress should greet his economic proposals with an open mind and work together for solutions. “We have to break the gridlock in Washington that's been preventing us from taking the action we need to get this economy moving,” Obama told the annual conference of the American Legion, meeting in Minneapolis.

Daring Republicans to cast a vote that could be seen as anti-military, President Obama called on Congress to approve a piece of his jobs package that would give employers a tax break for hiring veterans. Obama was joined by his wife on the third and final day of his bus tour through Virginia and North Carolina, stopping at an air base to make a case for hiring unemployed veterans. The first couple, after a couple of days apart, took turns addressing about 2,400 people, many wearing military camouflage.

WASHINGTON - Spouses of veterans in same-sex marriages will be allowed to collect federal benefits, the Obama administration announced Wednesday in a move following the Supreme Court decision that struck down a key section of the Defense of Marriage Act in June. President Obama directed the executive branch to stop enforcing two provisions that restricted the U.S. from awarding spousal benefits to veterans in legal gay marriages. The provisions define "spouse" as a "person of the opposite sex," Atty.

WASHINGTON -- First Lady Michelle Obama sat down for an interview with Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert to mark the one-year anniversary of her "Joining Forces" project to help veterans find employment after they return from war. In an appearance Wednesday on "The Colbert Report," Obama said the project began as a campaign promise to veterans, and that the work is not done. Unemployment among the armed forces has been decreasing, but is still a problem for many. "I said on the campaign trail that if I had the opportunity to serve in this role, that I would try to be their voice and tell their stories," Obama said of veterans and their families.

President Obama has signed an executive order that the administration says will crack down on colleges that prey on military veterans with misleading information about financial aid, credits and programs. The move comes amid reports of for-profit schools aggressively targeting veterans and the tuition assistance money provided in the G.I. Bill. Administration officials said they've seen a pattern of some schools enrolling large numbers of military students. Some of the schools lure the students in with false promises of generous financial aid or take advantage of veterans suffering from brain injuries sustained at war. "That's appalling.

WASHINGTON -- Lloyd Grace, an 89-year-old Navy veteran, called his visit to the National World War II Memorial "an extraordinary experience. " But it was an experience he and 90 other World War II veterans were almost denied. When his group arrived Tuesday at the National World War II Memorial after traveling more than 1,000 miles from southern Mississippi, they were greeted with barricades and signs alerting them that the site was closed. "We were very afraid we weren't going to be able to get onto the site," said Kimberly Foster-Moody, president of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Honor Flight, a nonprofit group that raised $90,000 to bring the veterans to the capital.

The National Transportation Safety Board has begun its investigation into the crash at a railroad crossing in Midland, Texas, where a freight train hit a parade float carrying veterans, killing four, officials said Friday. The crash turned what had been expected to be a celebration of veteran pride into a scene of destruction. Two flatbed tractor-trailers were carrying wounded veterans and their families to a banquet during a local veterans support group's parade on Thursday afternoon when a Union Pacific train hit one of the vehicles as the parade was crossing the tracks, according to officials.

For years, they have cringed at Hollywood's portrayals of the Iraq and Afghan wars. And don't get them started on the inaccuracies in the Oscar-nominated film "The Hurt Locker." Now, five veterans have been offered a chance to make their own documentaries about the consequences of the wars for them and for those around them. Commissioned by Brave New Foundation, they will produce and direct short films on topics including the Muslim experience in the U.S. military and veterans making the transition from the battlefield to the college campus.

Vandals burned 33 American flags that decorated veterans' graves for Memorial Day and replaced some of them with scrawled swastikas, authorities said in Orcas Island. The swastikas appeared where 14 of the flags had been. "This is not an act of free speech. This is a crime," Sheriff Bill Cumming said.

A daylong creative arts festival at the Sepulveda VA Medical Center in North Hills drew the participation of dozens of veterans Wednesday, including four who dropped out of the sky to join the event. The four-man skydiving crew, all of them veterans, provided the midday entertainment at the event that featured the creativity of local veterans, which ranged from abstract paintings to piano recitals.